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One Family You Should Avoid

It’s not a secret: don’t work for a family business unless you’re part of the family.

Yet people do. They fail to heed the warning.

Sometimes, it works out. Usually, it doesn’t.

One thing I’ve learned over the years, Vera, from observing clients and life generally, is that it pays to heed the advice. Unless you were born into, or married into, the family, stay clear of working for their businesses.

We’re seeing it play out at the highest echelon of society these days: in the White House. The White House is being run as a family business. Non-family members who are close to this guy are publicly humiliated as a tactic. Family is off limits. Why anyone would put themselves into such a situation is beyond me.

I’ve seen it countless times. “Blood is thicker than water,” they say. You get the point.

People delude themselves into thinking otherwise. And, as I said, sometimes it works out. But the general rule is well deserved.

In the context of family run businesses, there are two classes of people. The upper class (family) and everyone else. There is no meritocracy at work in most family run businesses.